International relations

International Relations

CNUE

Council of the Notariats of the European Union

The Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) was established in Brussels in 1993 when the Single Market was formed. The CNUE as a non-profit organization (ASBL) formed under Belgian law has 40 thousand members and is the official body representing and speaking for the European notarial profession.

The condition of full membership is that the relevant notariat should operate in one of the Member States and belong to the continental Latin notariats. The organization currently has 22 full members as follows: the national chambers of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is a full member of the CNUE since 1 May 2004. The United Kingdom and Ireland has a common-law based notarial system which differs from the civil-law based Latin notariat, no notariats have been established in Cyprus, Finland and Sweden, therefore these countries are not represented in the European notarial organisation.

The national notary chamber of any candidate country for accession to the EU may apply for observing status, as long as it belongs to a continental Latin-type notariat. Since 2013 the national chamber of Turkey is the only member having observing status.

The President and the Vice-President of the CNUE have a tenure for a calendar year. In 2016 the President is Paolo Pasqualis, an Italian notary, and the Vice-President is García Collantes, a Spanish notary.

The day-to-day affairs are managed by the office in Brussels by legal experts. The operational head of the office is the General Secretary. Raul Radoi, a former representative of the Romanian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries in Brussels, is the General Secretary since 1 January 2016.

The major decision-making body of the CNUE is the General Assembly in which the Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is represented by its President, Dr Ádám Tóth. The General Assembly is helped by the Administrative Council having sittings on a monthly basis and which is the main executive body of the organization. The Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is a member of the Administrative Council in 2016, Dr Ádám Tóth, its President, as councillor. The preparatory work for the decisions of the General Assembly is carried out in ordinary, ad hoc and provisional working groups.

English and French are the official and work languages of the CNUE.

Note: the exclusive task of the CNUEis to represent the interests of the notaries at a European level; it is not entitled to decide on complaints against notaries, or reply to legal questions. Should you have such or similar questions, please turn to the appropriate notarial body.

The UINL operating as a non-governmental organisation was established in 1948 in Buenos Aires with 19 members. Presently it has 86 members. The Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is involved in the UINL since 1992. Its function is to represent notariats before international institutions, cooperate and participate in the work of international institutions, promote research in jurisprudence related to the notarial profession in particular. The UINL fosters the cooperation between the notaries and the notariats, the regular exchange of information, and supports the newly established Latin notariats. The latest significant accomplishment of the organisation is the active participation in the establishment of the notariat in Thailand.

The UINL is represented by the President elected for 5 years, between 2014 and 2019 Daniel-Sédar Senghor, the Senegalese notary is holding the office. The supreme decision-making body of the Union is the General Meeting of member notariats where each member has one vote. The executive organ of the UINL is the Steering Committee where 28 councillors work on a continuous basis. The General Council counting 172 members, as well as the continental and intercontinental commissions are designed to make proposals, and have a strategic, economic, sociological and scientific research function. The General Meeting of member notariats and the General Council hold sessions biannually, Budapest hosted the notaries of the world in the autumn of 2014.

English, French and Spanish are the official languages of the organisation. The commissions of the UINL are bodies promoting the legal and technical cooperation of the notaries whose working groups are organised by specific topics. The continental commissions hold sessions annually on prearranged dates, the intercontinental commissions hold sessions simultaneously with that of the General Meeting and the General Council.

The Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is a member of the European Affairs Commission.

This Commission holds sessions biannually sharing experience by national reports and personal discussions. Members of the Commission are full members of the CNUE, as well as the notariats of Albania, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Switzerland, Turkey, the Vatican, and the Scriveners exclusively operating in London.

The UINL organizes conferences regularly, the next is due to be held in Paris on October 19-22 2016.

Note: the UINL is a forum for collaboration and the representation of interests of the notariats, it is not entitled to decide on complaints against notaries, or reply to legal questions. Should you have such or similar questions, please turn to the appropriate notarial body.

The European Notarial Network is an organisation of the European notariat in charge of scientific cooperation and training. Its membership corresponds to that of the CNUE (22 full members, 1 observing member), members are represented by the contact person (interlocutor) designated by the member notariat.

The Network has two distinct forms of activities. The internal activity covers supplying information to the notaries and chambers, training for notaries on a European level. The external activity aims at creating multilingual informational websites to the general public which may be accessed by clicking on the link below:

The representatives of the Conseil supérieur du notariat (Supreme Council of Notaries) and the Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries signed the Founding Charta of the French – Hungarian Committee in Budapest in April 2013. The Charta formalizes the intensive cooperation between the two notariats providing for mutual assistance, regular exchange of information and bilateral meetings.

III. Hexagonale (Cooperation of Central European Notaries)

The Hexagonale was founded in 1998 by the notarial chambers of Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The objective of this organisation is to deepen the professional cooperation, provide mutual assistance and regular exchange of information among the member notariats. The presidency of the Hexagonale is based on a rotation scheme. In 2016 Slovenian holds the presidency, the latest Hungarian presidency was in 2014.

IV. Notariats of Foreign Countries (the relevant website is accessible by clicking on the name of the chamber):

Budapest Chamber of Civil Law Notaries - Rhône County Chamber of Civil Law Notaries (Lyon)

The cooperation between the Budapest Chamber of Civil Law Notaries and Lyon was formalized in October 2014. Meetings of the two chambers are held every second year having a central topic. The main topic of the inaugural session held in Lyon was matrimonial property in France and Hungary.

Pécs Chamber of Civil Law Notaries - Aix-en-Provence Chamber of Civil Law Notaries

The notarial chamber of Aix-en-Provence and the Pécs Chamber of Civil Law Notaries entered into a Cooperation Agreement in the autumn of 2014 concurrently with the twinning arrangements concluded between the two towns. At the first session subsequently to the introduction of the two chambers, delegates could listen to presentations on matrimonial property regimes in France and Hungary. The second session was held in Pécs in the autumn of 2015 having the following topics: the status of the French notaries, French electronic authentic instruments, Hungarian electronic procedures and the European Succession Regulation.

VI. Informational websites

The Vulnerable in Europe

The website provides information on protective measures for minors and vulnerable adults in 22 European countries available in English, French, German and Spanish. Such information include national laws related to the custody of minors, conservatorship, lasting power of attorney, and living will.

The website provides information in English and French explaining how to buy property in the 22 EU countries including fundamental provisions on preparing and concluding a contract, and registering ownership, as well as on particular taxation issues.

The European Directory of Notaries contains the contact details of 40 000 notaries of 22 European countries. It is a novelty of the directory to search according to the languages spoken by a notary, so a Hungarian citizen can easily find a notary who speaks his/her mother tongue in the target country. A map facilitates to locate the office of the notary in question.

Note: legislation on the use of languages by notaries in the different countries may vary. The directory contains the spoken languages provided by the notaries, however there is no guarantee that the relevant notary is also entitled to draw up an instrument in the given language (e.g. in France every authentic instrument is prepared in French, in case such instrument is requested in a foreign language an official translator is required). Regarding the use of languages you are advised to make an inquiry at the selected notary or the relevant chamber.

The website provides comprehensive information on the succession law of 22 European countries in English, French and the language(s) of the given country explaining the most relevant provisions concerning preparation, succession and inheritance tax.

The website provides up to date information on the matrimonial property regimes of 28 European countries in 22 languages including legislation related to default regimes and optional systems, marriage contracts and their registration, as well as the property interests of cohabitants.

The IRENE was established in the form of a foundation in 1990 before the CNUE. Its objective is to promote research in the area of private international law and European law, as well as contributing to publications. The IRENE which celebrated its 25th anniversary in Vienna in November 2015 regularly organises seminars primarily on succession law and inheritance taxes. The work language of the IRENE is French.